Abstract

Ninety-four cases of strangulation of bowel are reviewed. These were encountered during a consecutive series of 152 cases of acute intestinal occlusion proved by surgery or post-mortem examination at the Coronation Hospital. The incidence of strangulation was 61.8%. The total mortality rate was 27.65%, the operative mortality 20.9%. The incidence. etiology, and pathology of strangulation is reviewed, with particular regard to the causes for the failure of collateral vessels to provide an alternative circulation following vascular occlusion, and the role of shock and toxaemia in fatal cases. Though in some centres the mortality for intestinal occlusion has been reduced to single figures, the death rate from strangulation is yet in the region of 20-40%.